Nigerian startup and YC Alum, Tizeti closes $2.1 Million in funding at its seed round

Benjamin Dada

7 years ago

Funding for start-ups based out of Africa has proven to be a challenge (when compared to their foreign counterparts in SV and Singapore). Although, there are reported improvements as in 2016, African tech start-ups raised $366.8M as opposed to the $276.5m the year before. So, every news about funding for a startup in this space is exciting for us.

I attended a tech event on Friday which had Tizeti (wifi.com.ng, their consumer facing brand) as its internet service provider. Before then, in 2016, Tizeti was one of the partners for the Nigerian Internship fair organised by Stutern. One thing at this stage is clear, Tizeti is into wireless networking. But there is more.

Tizeti as a Comcast for Africa

Tizeti addresses poor internet connectivity on the continent. The startup, was co-founded by Y-Combinator Alumni Kendall Ananyi and Ifeanyi Okonkwo, cohorts of the Winter 2017 batch. They do this by developing solutions for reliable and uncapped internet access for millions of Africans.

Tizeti is taking advantage of the falling costs of solar panels in Africa to create a network of owned towers which they operate.

The funding received will be used for expansion by launching an Xfinity (from Comcast) Wifi-like Hotspot service. Also, they will be increasing mobility with the inclusion of 3,000 new public hotspots across Lagos. Furthermore, they will be extending their services to the South-South region of Nigeria.

I suspect Port-harcourt as it is a major industrial centre with a large number of multinational firms who can potentially pay for their service.

Unlike the wholesale internet cost faced by Telcos, Tizeti has been building out its own solar-panel towers in hubs across Lagos. The use of renewable solar energy not only leads to favourably climatic condition but also reduces overheads on generators and diesel, which are often used across the continent to run towers.

Running its internet network from its own infrastructure allows their Wifi.com.ng to be more competitive in its pricing. Offering a subscription plan starting from N9,500 (about $30) per month puts them at an advantage over other WiFi service providers and telcos. For instance, N10,000 would get you only 15GB on Etisalat and Smile Network.

Going Forward…

The future for Tizeti seems bright. According the International Teleommunication Union, only about 25% of Africans are online. While there is about 29.3% of that number with a mobile-broadband subscription in Africa, the penetration rate for fixed broadband is below 1%. This statistics hold promise for Tizeti who hopes to expand across West Africa within the next 18 – 24 months after they hope to have ‘won Lagos’.

But, they might have to compete with the global tech firms who have shown interest in Africa. See Facebook’s Freebasics and Alphabet’s Titan Drone Internet Project (although, they seem to be slowing down).

In conclusion, Ananyi says,

“Since graduating from Y Combinator, we’ve licensed Spectrum (fees and pricing) from the Nigerian Government and signed an IRU contract with a Submarine Cable provider to extend the coverage of our Unlimited Internet Service, which will put Tizeti in a stronger position to roll out additional services to more people such as our new Wifi Hotspot Service”.

It’s going to be an interesting journey. Sit back while we bring you updates.